Lopburi

Lopburi has been on the back-burner, filed under ‘not at the moment’ seemingly forever. This was largely because of clips over the years of the macaque monkeys climbing all over sightseers, pulling their hair and stealing bags as they searched for food. Those, plus the videos of street battles being fought by huge troupes with hundreds of monkeys storming across the streets in and out of the traffic. If that wasn’t enough, the adjoining streets always looked so squalid, making sure that Lopburi induced a psychological swerve. Then I read that the authorities had cleared the place of monkeys during covid, leaving just the 150 or so to add a bit of colour for the tourists. As it happens, away from the antiquities, Lopburi presents as a regular Thai town with all the usual car showrooms, Big C Super Centres and a Robinsons Mall. If you lived there, you would likely not take any notice of the historical sites, apart from navigating the roundabouts to get to where you are going.